Academy Blues
by jhoom
Summary: Mass Effect AU where promising young cadets from various planets are sent to train at a military academy. And not just any academy, the academy. Those that come out the other end of this grueling training are basically on the short-list for Spectre candidacy. After years of being part of Citadel space, the first batch of human recruits are invited. (full summary inside)
1. Academy Blues

**Full Summary:** Mass Effect AU where promising young cadets from various planets are sent to train at a military academy. And not just any academy, the academy. Those that come out the other end of this grueling training are basically on the short-list for Spectre candidacy. After years of being part of Citadel space, the first batch of human recruits are invited. Among them is the young Jane Shepard, who has been part of the Alliance for just over a year. ****

 **Based on this prompt:** Today sucked. I'm so stressed out, I can't make sense of anything, I have this horrible test tomorrow and I don't know what happened but somehow I just broke down crying in front of you.

 **AN:** lol I feel like the summary for this is probably way longer than the fic warrants. But i had so much to set up because there's so much bg info needed since I've made it kinda AU. This isn't so much Shakarian as possible pre-Shakarian or good friends Jane Shepard and Garrus Vakarian in the Mass Effect version of a college!au.

This is sort of an attempt at writing a short fic, I guess? In that I'm not planning out anything super long. I guess I'm hoping for less than two thousand tbh. (Even though as I wrote the summary I was like, damn this could be 10k no problem. But I need a fluffy ficlet dammit! Gotta counteract the sadness from writing The Mark - just a short oneshot to make it all better before I make it all worse haha.)

And last but not least, huge thank you to Mordinette who was my beta reader for this fic :)

* * *

Jane might only be 19, but she's had plenty of bad days. There was the day her grandfather died when she was five. That sucked. Oh, and that one time she accidentally turned off the gravity on a shuttle her father was letting her pilot (both the actual incident and the tongue lashing she received later made this a particularly traumatic experience). And let's not forget when she'd broken her arm in a stupid cargo bay accident and had to miss out on a class trip.

And it's not as though those are the only examples of shit luck and bad days, either. But those are her go to examples. The ones she bitches about when people are telling stories and she needs to one up them. 'You think _that_ was bad, you should hear about-' types of situations you get into with new friends and fellow recruits.

But today? Today is worse than all of those put together.

It starts when she fucks up setting up a handheld comm device. It's a simulation of being stranded planet-side with non-functioning equipment. A simple job of getting a signal out for backup. Alliance training had her doing those all the time, the type of thing she feels she could do in her sleep. And she seriously messes it up.

When she goes to open up the comm unit for parts, she's stumped for a minute. The outside is the sleek casing that screams Alliance, but the inside looks nothing like what she expected. There's a label on a piece that makes her think salarian, which, _fuck_. But she figures she can make it work.

The damn thing just about explodes in her face.

And then the officer in charge of the simulation is chewing her out in front of the other recruits. Okay, so she's been chewed out before. This isn't exactly anything new. But it makes her feel so _small_ to have this officer who _barely knows her_ insult her intelligence like that. And the _guilt_ from the picture she paints in Jane's head. Of being stranded with squad members depending on her training and expertise, and she'd just _blown up_ their only chance of contacting help.

The whole thing puts her in a foul mood going to lunch. Which is when her and the other recruits from the morning session find out that the impromptu humiliation she just endured has caused them to be late to the mess hall. And it is now closed.

They mutter to each other about how much of a dick their earlier instructor was before parting ways. And she's probably just imagining the way a few of them glare at her.

Her afternoon is filled with melee training. Her head just isn't in it, her stomach growling uncomfortably and the water she keeps drinking sloshing around heavily. She takes beating after beating. And again, it's not that it isn't normally grueling work... it's just a lot worse when you get thrown onto a mat and aren't expecting it.

 _Get your head in the game, Shepard,_ she berates herself as she gets pinned _again_.

She's only too happy to hit the shower before storming off to her last session of the day.

Biotics. Thank _god_. Now this, _this_ is something she's good at. She's hoping to just lose herself in the sparring matches and the cathartic effects of a good workout.

Yeah, not so much. Not two moves into her first match, she's on her ass. The next two bouts go better, followed by a tie.

But then she's up against Vrogo, this small little thing of a krogan. Definitely the smallest krogan you'll ever see. But she learned the hard way that the guy could pack a fucking wallop. Years of being the runt of the litter (and she can only imagine how bad that would be among krogan) had made him have something to prove. A chip on his shoulder that results in him trying to smash every opponent into the ground.

The sad thing is, she _knew_ not to let her guard down around him. She spars with him regularly and has more than her share of first hand experience with how strong his biotic throw is. So when she gets hit by it three. times. _in a row._ she's just about had it.

"Maybe you don't belong here," he sneers after the forth time. It takes all of her willpower to not walk out right then.

It's his usual shit, the type of thing he says to everyone. There's not a single recruit here he hasn't said something like that to. But it still gets to her. Worms her way under her skin and makes her want to smash something.

 _Does_ she belong here? Is she good enough to be representing her whole _species_? If she fucks up and gets herself kicked out, would it just be showing that humans aren't ready to train with the best of them? Would it be the end of any human recruits period?

When they're dismissed to dinner, she just veers off to the dorms. Yeah, she's really fucking hungry, but she just can't deal with being around anyone right now. She's got snacks stashed in her foot locker, she'll be able to deal until breakfast. Her body protests the way she sprints up the stairs to the third floor, bruises from her earlier beatings making themselves known, but otherwise it seems to relent to the forced fasting.

And to top it off, she stubs her goddamned toe on the way into her dorm room.

Murphy's law, amiright?

Somehow that's the last straw. Her eyes water as she slams the console to close the door. She ignores how that makes her hand sting because _of course_ it does. She barely makes it to her bed before she's choking on tears, burying her face in her pillow and just letting the sobs take over.

She's not sure how long she lies there crying. All of her senses are shut down, everything narrowed to the way her body shakes with each breath and the growing wetness on her pillow. It's no surprise that she doesn't hear the door open or the steps approaching.

"Shepard, I didn't see you at dinner-"

Her breath hitches when she hears him and if possible her heart sinks even further. Right. Roommate.

"Garrus?" she asks. Fuck her voice sounds raspy, even muffled by the bedding.

They were assigned as roommates after a series of 'compatibility' tests at the beginning of the semester. Roommates were supposed to be at a minimum from different planets, but ideally of different species. Help build bridges between blah blah blah. Jane was paired with the turian during her first week. Their coursework generally doesn't line up, but they're still good friends. And if pressed, she might be willing to admit she has a soft spot for the blue-eyed turian.

Just thinking that muddles her thoughts. She feels her bed dip as he takes a seat next to her as she tries to focus around the fuzzy feeling in her chest.

"Shepard?" he asks. She can almost feel his hand hovering over her back, unsure how to offer comfort.

"'m fine," she mumbles. It doesn't sound believable, so she turns her head so that she can actually see. "I'm fine," she repeats and hopes she'll start to believe it herself.

She's not wrong about his hand. It's a few inches above her, itching to rub between her shoulder blades, but now that she's turned her head he pulls it away. "Are you sure?"

Her smile is a little weak, at least judging by the way his mandibles flutter in concern. "I will be," she promises. Because she will. She sits up to prove her point.

Garrus moves over to make room for her when she swings her feet over the side of the bed. They're sitting side by side, but it would be so easy to scoot over those last few inches so that their thighs would be touching. Her leg tingles a little at the idea. She sniffles a bit and wipes at her eyes, which seem to be mostly dry now but dammit if she doesn't need the distraction.

"What happened?"

It's tempting to outright dismiss the question. Shrug it off with a "Don't worry about it." Maybe a "Nothing I can't handle" with a bit too much bravado. She's about to say something along those lines but the words die in her throat. She thinks about everything that happened and then she's hiccuping out, "Today _sucked_ -" but the rest of it's broken off into more sobs.

She means to fling herself back onto the bed so she can hide how gross and miserable she looks while she cries, but Garrus is in the way and she kinda ends up throwing herself at him instead. Her arms are around his neck, following the curve of his cowl, and her head rests on his shoulder as she struggles against this new wave of tears.

The hesitance is back, his arms half raised to hug her back, but it doesn't last as long. They close around her, strong and steady and she grounds herself in that feeling. Her breathing evens out as she matches it to Garrus'. Tension drains out of her until she feels like jelly, only still sitting because she's being held. She even thinks she feels something rumbling in his chest.

(Maybe his subvocals trying to soothe her? There's something endearing and pretty adorable about that.

 _Ugh, do not think about Garrus being adorable._

Scolding herself doesn't help, because the idea is there and she can't quite get rid of it.)

Enough time passes that she starts to realize that this is weird. This is way too long to be a friendly hug (hell, she doesn't even know if turians hug _at all_ ). She allows herself to soak in the centered feeling she's gained before she pulls away. Shyly, she avoids looking Garrus in the eyes.

"Sorry 'bout that." She laughs slightly, because this is the type of thing you should laugh off, right? Losing your shit in front of her roommate definitely is up there with embarrassing moments, and she'll be glad to have this behind them. Though she doubts Garrus will tease her too much about it.

"Any time, Shepard." One of his hands still rests on her left shoulder. She can feel it, a solid weight that should feel invasive (the hug is over, after all) but doesn't in the least. It makes her kinda sad to think that's not something she's ever had before. Just a simple point of contact with the turian, easy and friendly but potentially more.

She eventually follows the line of his arm up to his eyes, which are so intense and blue and fixed right at her. They glimmer with something, some emotion that she can't quite place. "You feeling better?" he asks.

It's a good thing they're not hugging anymore because there's no way she wouldn't have felt his voice rumbling through him. She shivers a bit.

"Yeah," she says, because she needs to say something _now_ before she starts getting _ideas_. "I think so." She actually does, to her own surprise. Thank god- she has a huge exam coming up that she needs to prep for (read: cram for) and being mopey isn't going to get her anywhere.

With a final squeeze, he lets go and gets up. She watches him retreat to his side of the room to start on his own studies. The fuzziness is back, making her vision go a little soft.

Huh. She'll have to look into that later. But for now she pulls out her notes, only sneaking a peak at Garrus once every couple minutes.

Later, for sure.

* * *

 **AN:** I originally wanted this to be way more Shakarian than it ended up, but it didn't seem necessary to get these two smooching right now. Maybe at some point I'll revisit this and do a second part? We'll see! (Final word count *is* in fact less than 2000... but that's such a high word limit that it barely even counts as a "limit"...)


	2. Cheaters Never Win

**AN:** Finally got around to writing a second installment of Academy Blues :) I'm actually pulling from the same list of prompts as the original. I have (at least) one more portion semi-planned out. I could probably get a fourth one in (I have a tiny little plot bunny for what that could be), but we'll see.

Thanks to mordinette for putting up with my weird formatting issues and random errors (i.e. beta-reading)

* * *

Turians weren't necessarily the most well-versed when it came to knowing about other species. They'd been part of Citadel space for a while, picked up a lot in that time, but it had taken years to get where they were now. Put them with an asari, a salarian, hell, even a krogan, and they knew what to do.

But throw in a new entity like humanity, and well, it all went out the window.

Humans were confusing. The overall structure of their society seemed pretty straightforward, but damn it all, the _nuances_ of their culture had turians all across the galaxy shaking their heads. A lot of what they did or said just didn't make a whole lot of sense. And it didn't help matters that the two species had met under the shadow of war.

At least it wasn't just turians who had trouble understanding humans. They'd all whisper together how _strange_ they were and how it was a miracle they'd developed the technology to even get to light speed. It was honestly a little condescending of them to do it, but that was usually how it went when a new species showed up on the Citadel.

For his part, Garrus tried not to be judgmental. He was reasonably confident that there were plenty of turianisms that just didn't translate between cultures (and that irked _him_ , someone who grew up in the midst of it). So he kinda just ignored the weird things or at least filed them away to ponder later.

Having a human roommate helped put things into better perspective. His father hadn't taken too well to the news when he got his room assignment at the beginning of the term. His father had his own prejudices from his experiences working at C-Sec, but they were just that - his own. Garrus had no interest in letting his father's discomfort create issues for him and his roommate. The whole point was to get members of different species working together, right? To overcome the cultural gap that divided them.

Or something like that. He'd have to read the damn pamphlet again to get the wording right.

Garrus had been willing to try. He was fully committed to his work at the Academy as he started his second year, and that included putting forth the effort to get along with the other recruits. Last year he'd been with a jumpy little salarian who had actually _hissed_ at him a couple times. In comparison, how hard could it be to get along with a human for a year?

But then he met Shepard.

At first it had been great. They clicked really well despite their different backgrounds. Conversation flowed easily, they were doing similar courses and training (though they didn't have much together since Garrus was a year ahead in the program), and enjoyed sharing the amusing oddities particular to their species. Months later they hadn't even had the usual roommate-type arguments the other cadets were experiencing off and on. Seriously, it was _great_. A hundred times better than last year, which had been passable at best in the roommate department.

"It still is great," Garrus reminded himself. Again. For the fifth time that day.

The problem was that some time over the past few months, something had shifted. Shepard wasn't just a friendly face he looked forward to seeing each evening after classes. She wasn't just good company. And she wasn't just his roommate.

Slowly, so slowly he hadn't even noticed it until it was too late, he'd maybe kinda perhaps totally developed a small minuscule inconsequential earth-shattering crush on his roommate.

He was so totally fucked.

And in all likelihood, he could've gone the whole year without his feelings even registering. Except there'd been _that day_ a month ago when Shepard had broken down. It was something that happened sometimes. They were all young, the combined stress of being away from home and dealing with the grueling rigor of their studies got to even the best of them.

Garrus had found her crying on her bed, and that was the exact moment he realized just how deep he was. Because it damn near shattered his heart to see her so upset, to not be able to _do_ anything to help. Hell, his only experience with crying humans before this had been when a cadet broke his leg the first week of training the previous year. All he really knew was tears = pain (and he was starting to figure out it could be emotional pain, too) and Shepard's pain = his pain.

Ugh. Worst fucking realization he could've had, honestly.

After that, he started noticing all the little ways that showed just how _bad_ he had it for her. His heart sped up when they were close, his breathing temporarily erratic. He went out of his way to get her to smile, hear her laugh. If she was in the room, the rest of the galaxy narrowed to the sound of her voice. At least - and this was truly the only good thing about the situation - she hadn't seemed to notice anything was off.

Because there was nothing off and there wouldn't _be_ anything off because things were fine. Totally normal.

Sometimes he had issues not saying anything. Because he wanted to, so _badly_. And it might be stupid, but there were times when he thought maybe she liked him too. So he made a list of reasons to keep his damn mouth shut, and he'd repeat it over and over until he got it through his thick skull. Remind himself why it was a stupid idea and he should just leave the status quo as was.

1\. We're roommates. It would make things awkward if she's not interested or we don't work out as a couple.

2\. She's human. I'm not. We're not compatible romantically, even if we get along as friends.

3\. She can do better. I'm the wise-cracking best friend and roommate. Not the guy you take home to your parents.

4\. I would probably just fuck it up if anything happened. For reference see: every relationship I have ever had in the history of ever.

There was more he could add, but these were the highlights.

Even if he didn't plan on pursuing anything with Shepard, there were certain indulgences he allowed himself. Like in the mornings, when he got her coffee and she gave him that one particular smile that was a bit muted from fatigue but still made his heart stutter a bit. He let himself enjoy that smile and pretend it meant more than it did.

Or when she'd duck out of dinner early because she wasn't in the mood to deal with people, but she'd still hang out with him in their room like it was the highlight of her day. Was it so bad if he bought into the illusion that it really was?

And occasionally, if the opportunity presented itself, he'd give in to the casual touches friends shared. A hand to the small of her back, just for a moment. Shoulders bumping when they walked or sat together. A touch instead of words to get her attention. The last one he did all the time. Humans seemed much more open to that sort of thing than turians, and once it had happened once or twice without issue, he did it more and more.

(Nothing was ever as invasive as when he'd hugged her that one time. But she didn't mention it, didn't seek that type of comfort again, so he followed her lead.)

Today was no different. Neither of them had morning classes, so they were in their room prepping each other for a combat simulation (for him) and an engineering exam (for her). Lost in thought as she perused the blueprints of a power converter, she didn't hear Garrus ask her a question. Nor did she hear when he repeated it. With barely suppressed glee, he saw the opportunity and took it.

Leaning over a bit, he poked her in the side.

What he had not been expecting was the full body jump and the way she squirmed away from the contact with an undignified squawk. "Jesus H. Christ, Vakarian, what the hell?"

He noticed the tension in her body before anything else and gave her a questioning look. "I'm... sorry?" This was the most unusual reaction he'd ever gotten from her. He didn't even think humans were _capable_ of that type of noise... That made him start to worry, so instead he buckled the thought down and asked, "Is something wrong?"

"I'm- I- It's nothing!" The redness of her cheeks made him question the truth of that statement, but he let it go.

It couldn't have been that bad, though, since she relaxed after a minute. Their studying resumed, and the incident was forgotten.

Or at least until the next day.

They were getting lunch in between training sessions. Their off time during the day didn't always line up, so when it did, they made an effort to hang out. Shepard was poking around in front of him in line, trying to choose between some (in his opinion) questionable looking fruit ("Apples or oranges, Garrus? Apples or oranges? Oh- bananas! Damn, I haven't had a banana since I was last on Earth. Maybe I should get a banana..."). Her existential crisis over which snack to get was causing the line to get backed up.

While often he made a conscious decision to engage in physical contact, this was just a gut reaction. He reached forward and poked her in the side in an attempt to herd her forward. With a quickness he'd never seen from Shepard before (which really said something, he knew firsthand that she was pretty damn fast), her hand snatched his and jerked it away with more force than she'd ever exerted outside of sparring. All of that happened while Shepard tried to juggle the food already on her tray.

"Vakarian, _seriously_ , do _not_ do that!" There was a little more bite in her tone this time, and he started to wonder if he'd done something wrong. Maybe she'd picked up on his inappropriate (almost) flirting or his stupid pining-

But... she didn't say anything else. Beside a half-hearted glare that died out by the end of the lunch line, there wasn't much for him to go on. Just in case, though, he refrained from those friendly touches that all of a sudden were becoming an issue.

A couple days passed without things being weird, and he managed to forget about both incidents. Shepard didn't care - besides her strange reactions in the moment - so why should he let himself worry about it? He knew he was out of the woods when it was Shepard playfully nudging him with her shoulder while they waited for trainers to show up.

The only class they had together with any regularity was melee training. Garrus was there more in an instructional capacity to help demonstrate to the newer students and for the extra practice. Shepard was a pretty quick learner, one of the best in her year by far, and usually the two of them got paired together for sparring. Which they were kind of doing now, just a way more childish version of what was to come.

Their horsing around wasn't much more than playful punches and jabs and at one point Shepard accused him of doing something called a "noogie." But it was enough to make his chest a little tight and hard for him to think straight.

( _She likes me back, we're flirting right now, this is totally flirting-_

 _Shut up, you're wrong, you're just friends-_

 _But we fit so well together, it's so easy, maybe-_

 _1: We're roommates. 2: She's human. 3: She can do better. 4: You'll just fuck it up-_

 _Alright, I get it, you don't have to say it._ )

His morose thoughts distracted him enough for Shepard to knock his legs out from under him. Despite the cheers from the nearby students, she was genuinely concerned when she offered him a hand and started pulling him to his feet.

"Sorry! I thought- Thought you were ready... I'm so sorry-"

She was so flustered it made him feel less embarrassed about the whole predicament. He just laughed it off with a quick, "Don't worry about it, my fault for not paying attention. Just don't expect me to go easy on you today after that."

Her answering smile was genuine, if not a little shy, but then masked immediately by her usual bravado when the day's lesson started minutes later.

That evening, though, she seemed intent to make it up to him (never mind the headlock he'd gotten her in and the couple punches he'd landed during the sparring match that had followed). As soon as they got into their room after dinner, she started digging through a box in her closet.

She whooped in triumph and then brandished a beat-up looking controller "Care to unwind a little?" she asked with an eyebrow waggle. "I got a couple games I know you'd love?"

Her enthusiasm was too cute contagious for him to refuse, so he ended up helping her set up the small gaming system on one of the desks. While she turned it on, he sifted through the rather meager collection of games. Again, he felt a little bit of culture shock. A farming simulator - _how_ was that fun? A brightly colored creature jumping from platform to platform? What the hell? A game where animals were captured and forced to battle one another? That was a little sadistic, honestly. The shuttle racing one he could understand.

But just as he thought he was finding some common ground, the next game he pulled out had him completely flabbergasted.

"A First Contact War game, _really,_ Shepard?"

"Ohhh, that's a good one." His surprise didn't even register to her as she snatched it and loaded up the game. "I'm the fucking man at this one though, so don't get your hopes up on winning."

"I... wait, what? My species _won_ the Contact War, how could I not win the game-"

"Uh, excuse you, it was a _draw_."

"My species literally has millennia of experience in battle, centuries of experience in fighting intergalactic wars. We would've crushed humanity-"

"Bull fucking shit, Vakarian. My species has been fucking each other up for the entirety of our history. We are really damn creative at coming up with new ways to kill people. We'd have given you guys a run for your money for sure."

"Apparently you also have a fixation with _documenting_ wars in the form of video games," he drawled. "How is that not bizarre?"

She shrugged. "We've been doing it since forever. World Wars, Civil Wars, theoretical wars against theoretical countries. We've got a thing for war and shooting things." Clicking through the menu, she selected the turian forces. "Even if it means shooting at ourselves," and the grin she gave him was downright _evil_.

About halfway through the first round, he realized why Shepard had given him that look. She may have wanted to argue in favor of humans winning a prolonged conflict, but the turian forces in game were significantly better equipped. He huffed out his annoyance about it when he was decimated that round.

"Maybe you're only good at this game because you cheat. You purposely picked the easier option."

"What?!" she sputtered. "First of all, how dare you. Second of all, how _dare_ you."

"Is there a third point on this list? Because if so, I can probably guess what it is-"

"Hey, wise guy, you think you're so good? Here-" she grabbed his controller and switched it with hers. "Now _you_ can be the 'easier option' and I will _still_ kick your ass."

She did indeed kick his ass the second round, but not by nearly as much. Most of his issues were learning the new controls for the turian forces, which were inexplicably different from the ones for the humans. By the third, he had learned the basic mechanics of the game and put up a good enough fight that it was nearly a draw. Shepard barely eked out the win, but he took it as a moral victory.

"You wanna change games?"

"Are you worried because I'm about to beat you next round?"

"Oh it is fucking _on_."

His childhood hadn't afforded him much opportunity to play video games, but no one ever said he wasn't a fast learner. Or strategic. Halfway through the round, he had Shepard on the ropes. And yeah, so he was feeling a tad smug about it. Reasonably confident he was going to win, he didn't expect what happened next.

Just as his main battle force was about to enter firing range on her, she pushed him. Well, shoved him would be a more apt description since she nearly knocked the controller out of his hand, and in the meantime shot down his flagship before it could reach her outpost.

"That's not very sporting of you," he growled, but tried to ignore it and keep playing.

But once the next assault started, she tried to do it again. He managed to hold his controller out of her reach, but Shepard retaliated by waving a hand in front of his face and occasionally turning his head away so he couldn't see the screen. Not skilled enough to win outright, he was marginally impressed that she could play one-handed.

"Shepard, what are you- Stop-"

"Nope. Not happening." And it just escalated from there. Every few seconds, she was either pushing or shoving and at one point she tried standing in front of him.

Garrus was still doing well enough that he _might_ be able to win, but not if he didn't learn from Shepard's less than admirable tactics. So he started pushing back and managed to knock her controller on the floor (and it was icing on the cake when it rolled under her bed and she had to scramble to get it back... though not before he blew up her ship).

"Not bad, Vakarian," she grumbled and tried to recover.

"What can I say, I learned from the best."

Shanxi was about to start and Garrus decided he needed to be proactive. As the cut scene played, he reached out and poked Shepard in the side. The squawk was back as was the squirming, so he kept it up, mercilessly poking in the same spot. Shepard threw - _threw_ \- her controller in an effort to get away from him. Any concern he might have felt disappeared at the laughter that burst forth each time he landed a hit on her abdomen.

Fascinated, he put aside his own controller to continue this new onslaught, which was much more satisfying than his impending digital victory. He turned his full attention to Shepard, trying different spots to see which elicited the best reactions. With each passing touch of his talons, more giggles and laughter trickled out against her will. She did her best to push his hands away, but she was helpless.

It was adorable.

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, GARRUS!" Honestly, he was a bit surprised she could yell given how hard it seemed for her to breathe. "I- I SWEAR TO GOD, VAKARIAN- DON'T- D-DON'T TICKLE ME!" Laughter kept bubbling out of her and he couldn't quite bring himself to stop yet. "OH MY GOD ALRIGHT- ALRIGHT! YOU- YOU WIN! I SHOULDN'T HAVE CHEATED! PL- PLEASE STOP! CAN'T- I CAN'T BREATHE!"

There was a huge grin plastered on her face, belying the urgency of her claims, but he reluctantly stopped. She shook with some residual laughter so he kept a steadying hand on her shoulder. In the background, the game taunted them about their shared defeat. Guess he'd forgotten to pause it. Oh well.

"You lost." Her eyes were shining. It made his head a little fuzzy.

"So did you."

"Yeah..." She stopped to lick her lips. He tracked the movement, not sure what was so appealing about it. "But _you_ didn't win." A cocky grin replaced the strange, unidentifiable expression she'd been wearing since he stopped tickling her. (What the hell was tickling, anyway? He made a mental note to look that up.) "Priorities."

"Mutually assured destruction?" He couldn't help the way his mandibles fluttered. He noticed the way her eyes drifted to watch, just like he had earlier. Did that mean something?

"Definitely." She leaned in a bit. Something was about to happen - what, he didn't know, but it was happening and it was _important_ -

The game beeped angrily at them, demanding attention and a new round, and they both jumped apart.

"Oh, right. The game." She was way too cocky when she asked, "You up for another round?"

Why was Shepard so flustered? Weren't they just talking about it? What the hell subtext of this conversation had he just missed?

"Uhh," he stammered. His head was a mess right now, he needed space. "I think I'm done. I've got some stuff to work on for tomorrow."

"Oh." Was she disappointed? She sounded disappointed... Seriously, _what had he missed_? "Yeah, I got some stuff too."

Before he could change his mind, she started packing up the gaming equipment. The moment was over, and after a minute or two to recover, he headed over to his terminal.

The first thing he needed to do was look up what the hell tickling was.

* * *

 **AN:** For reference, the games Shepard has in her collection include Animal Crossing, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokemon, Star Wars: Podracing, and Call of Duty: First Contact War. (Psst, I've never played Call of Duty, I have no idea how it works, just pretend it's like I wrote in the story.)


	3. House Arrest

**AN:** Continuation of Academy Blues that starts up a little after part two leaves off. The next installment (whenever I get around to it) will be back to Shepard's POV. I think...

And why yes, I am doing this instead of writing the next chapter of The Mark... hopefully I'll be able to update that story this week or early next, the problem is I have to review the Leviathan mission ahead of time...

And thank you to mordinette for putting up with my errors and beta-reading for me :)

Based on this prompt: We passed out on your bed after playing Scrabble last night, and our limbs are completely entangled, the blankets are on the floor and I don't think I ever want to leave.

* * *

If you'd asked Garrus where the safest place in any system might be, near the top of the list would be the Academy. With top notch military grade equipment for training and instructors all known for their prestigious careers, no one would dare launch an attack. Even if somewhere else in the system were targeted, there's _no way_ they'd even _think_ about going after the Academy too.

Which was all true, he admitted to himself. There was a batarian raid at the edge of the system - several planets over from the Academy's facilities - and they'd made no indication that they intended to move further into the system. Yet here he was, rushing back to his dorm room and doing his best to ignore the screeching alarms ringing across the campus.

* * *

About midday all the classes had been interrupted by the high-pitched whine (extremely grating to listen to, but it was a frequency all species could hear and would respond to appropriately). They'd all stared at each other, wondering if it was some kind of drill they weren't acquainted with. His instructor, a human woman with silver hair and dark skin he'd learned meant she was "tan", had gone pale and then promptly annoyed. She'd acted quickly, filling them in on what the alarm meant and instructing them to _immediately_ head back to their rooms.

"And yes, _your own_ rooms. We'll be doing roll call. You're not where you're supposed to be, there'll be hell to pay."

Given the nature of the situation, none of the students were inclined to doubt that threat.

He pushed his way through the throngs of recruits heading in the opposite direction, nearly ran over a salarian student who seemed particularly confused and nervous. His internal aggravation at being held up wasn't enough to outweigh the tinge of pity he felt looking into her wide eyes. Squaring his shoulders, he decided to help the obviously overwhelmed young woman back to her room.

Even rushing, he barely made it back to his room before the roll call sounded. Shepard quirked an eyebrow at him from where she was perched at her desk, but didn't comment as a drill sergeant came by to check in on them.

"I thought this place was supposed to be safe," he growled in annoyance before slumping down on his bed to pout. "Why are they locking us in like children?"

Shepard eyed him warily, probably trying to read his mood, before answering. "I heard from Higgins that the fourth year and up cadets are being flown over to help deal with the raid, plus a lot of the staff. So all of us youngin's are being put under house arrest since there aren't enough of them to keep us in line if we freak out or something."

"Oh." His shoulder slumped because that was actually kind of reasonable and reasonable didn't really give him grounds to complain.

"It still sucks ass," Shepard offered, correctly reading his sour mood. "What's got you all broody anyway?"

He thought back to the worried salarian cadet as well as a few others who seemed more panicked than the rest. It didn't bode well for them as future soldiers that they were so easily spooked. Something they were probably starting to realize now that they were shut in the quiet of their rooms with nothing else to do but think. They'd have to make the decision to toughen up or switch focuses to something else. Something where it wouldn't mean life or death if they broke under the pressure.

The second-hand pain he experienced thinking of their current turmoil sat uncomfortably in his gut.

Mouth pressed together in a firm line, he ignored Shepard's question. Instead he reached for the nearest datapad and pretended to find the open file extremely interesting. He could feel Shepard watching him, but soon she sighed and turned back to her own work.

Eventually Garrus did manage to focus long enough to get _some_ work done. By his own standards, it was subpar at best, but at least it offered a distraction. Perhaps it was too effective in that regard, since he didn't notice Shepard getting up from her desk and shuffling around in the closet. He in fact didn't realize she's moved at all until she plopped down on his bed in front of him with a big goofy grin.

"Wanna play Scrabble?" she asks, holding up a red box with a bizarre picture on it.

He eyes it suspiciously, wondering what form of human bonding ritual this might be. Or if it was just some Shepard-specific way of trying to cheer him up. "What's Scrabble?"

Shepard gaped at him, clearly torn in how to react to such sacrilege. "You're turian, so I'm going to let that one slide. Scrabble is only _the_ greatest board game known to man. It requires skill, but isn't going to cause the type of in-fighting that Monopoly does. Because honestly, fuck Monopoly and fuck my cousin for stealing Boardwalk from me."

"I have no idea what any of that means."

Her fingers tapped along the edges of the box. It was a habit of hers whenever she was deciding how _human_ to get with him. "We'll save the Monopoly for another day."

Garrus was of course more than happy to follow her lead on that. She opened the box and started taking out various pieces, spreading them on the bed and handing some over to him. "Scrabble is a spelling game. You gotta spell words with the letters you have. Longer words are more points. Words with rare letters are more points. There are some spaces on the board that give you bonus points. And now that I'm describing it, I'm starting to realize how nerdy this game is..."

The idea of the game was interesting and far different from the video games she'd introduced him to a few weeks ago. Yes, that had involved strategy but it had really relied more on your understanding of the game mechanics than any actual knowledge of the historical circumstances. The nuances of this game would no doubt require careful planning as well, but it rewarded those who had useful information rather than those who had invested more time in playing the game.

As Shepard continued to set up, he found himself enjoying the prospect of playing. Until he picked up one of the pieces, a letter neatly carved into the center of the wood block. Heart sinking a bit, he held it up for Shepard. "You do realize the translator compensates for a lot, right? I'm not even sure what these symbols mean or what sounds they correspond to... Or if this sound even exists in my language."

She frowned and stopped arranging the game. "You don't know what letter that is?"

"I recognize the symbol as a letter, though I'm not familiar with the language. I should probably point out that I don't even know _which_ human language you speak, I only know there are several. I've seen the letter before. But usually when I see human writing on signs or actual pieces of paper, my visor provides a translation for me. It doesn't bother with individual letters. A letter by itself is meaningless unless it's part of a word or acronym." He shrugged (and briefly hoped he was mimicking the human gesture correctly). "There's nothing for it to parse out on its own. So again, I have no clue what sound this letter actually corresponds to."

"Oh." Shepard seemed genuinely disappointed. There was a moment of hesitation before she picked up the nearest block and showed it to him. "This is an 'S'. It makes a 'ssss' sound."

Garrus' mandibles twitched as he listened to what the translator offered. It sounded like nonsense. Noise with no meaning attached. But not wanting to burst Shepard's bubble, he repeated the sounds. "Any useful words that use that sound?"

"Oh my _god_ , Vakarian," she sputtered. It looked like she was about to throw the game piece at him. "My friggin' _name_ starts with an S! What the hell do you hear when you say 'Shepard' anyway?"

"I-" but he stopped short because he didn't quite know how to answer that. Thinking about it now gave him an idea. He pulled up his omni-tool and switched off the translator. Shepard eyed him curiously, but her face lit up in understanding and she did the same. A smile full of mischief, she gestured for him to go ahead. "Shepard," he said in the same exact way he'd always done.

Shepard's eyebrows rose but she otherwise didn't comment. "Vakarian." And _wow_ , that was... that was different. No subvocals added in to get the tone quite right, her voice too high pitched for any turian, and the distinct way his name sounded almost watery, like there was just too much tongue and spit and space for them to echo off of.

His reaction must have been amusing, at least based on the laugh Shepard graced him with and... And he might never use the translator again if _that_ was what Shepard laughing sounded like. The translator always inserted the subvocals needed to show if the laugh was genuine or not, but listening to her firsthand instilled in him the conviction that it was completely unnecessary. He could _hear_ the happiness in the melody of it.

It was beautiful.

( _Stop thinking like that, Vakarian. We've been through this before._ )

Thankfully, with or without the translation program running, Shepard wouldn't have been able to understand the way his mandibles twitched and his eyes narrowed. Even the best algorithms couldn't pinpoint the precise meaning of facial expressions and hand gestures - those all had to be learned the old fashioned way. Either way, he was probably safe. There was little to no chance she could have interpreted the fond way he'd just looked at her.

She moved to turn her translator back on and he followed suit (though mentally he had to prepare himself to make sure he could school his voice into composed neutrality). "You sound like you were gargling glass while trying to talk."

"Thank you," he answered dryly. "You sounded like a high-pitched leaky faucet with words coming out."

And then that laugh bubbled out of her in response, making the comparison even more spot on.

"Okay," she eventually managed to get out through giggles that wouldn't quite die out. "I think traditional Scrabble is pretty much out. But..." And there was something mischievous in the way she looked at him before dumping all the letter blocks onto the board lying between them. "We can still have some fun."

Grabbing the nearest tiles, she started putting them together. Words only half-formed, his visor wasn't able to decipher much, though it did helpfully provide him with guesses of what the words might become. Somehow Shepard noticed because she grunted as she reached across the board and pulled his visor right off his head. "That's cheating," was her only explanation before shutting it off and putting it on his desk.

"I'm not going to be able to read these without the visor-"

"I'm going to teach you, duh." About ten words laid out, Shepard crossed her arms and smugly surveyed her handiwork. Garrus looked them over one by one, as though the meaning of the words would make themselves apparent if he merely stared long enough. They did not, but he was able to recognize that some of them had the S letter Shepard had already pointed out to him.

"Okay, first we should probably go over what the letters look and sound like..." She carefully got off the bed, making sure not to jostle the gameboard, and rummaged through her desk. She held up a pad of paper and a pen triumphantly before throwing them his way. "We're going low tech cuz in a minute we're shutting off the translators again."

"Great." He tried to pour as much sarcasm into the single word, but there was probably a hint of his eagerness not too underneath.

Shepard methodically went through the whole alphabet, insisting that Garrus diligently take notes. The couple times she peaked to make sure he was actually following her instructions instead of doodling, she gawked at the strange symbols he wrote after each letter.

"I can't write notes about your language in your language." He fidgeted in embarrassment at his own messy handwriting - both for the strange human symbols and even his native turian ones.

"No, no I get it... They, uh... just look really cool, I guess."

Once they'd gone through each letter and their respective sounds, Shepard grinned evilly and made him shut off his translator. They went word by word, first with Garrus attempting to sound it out and then Shepard modeling it for him. Then of course, Shepard would prompt him to make a guess at what it meant, laughing at his choices because _her_ translator was still on and she knew every damn word they were both saying.

Only after he'd made at least five guesses would she grab the notepad and draw out the word. Which okay, Shepard's artist talents were a little lacking, so if he made a fool of himself by butchering her language it only seemed fair that he got to laugh at her drawings.

The first few words went pretty quickly, making them both over confident... until they got stuck on the fourth one. She gave him a thumbs up on his pronunciation, only correcting him once, but his guesses were all wrong. Her cocky grin disappeared though when he'd been unable to guess what her drawing was.

"Well, honestly, it looks like a sea creature native to Palaven, but I doubt that's what you were going for." Her scowl told him that she very much was _not_ going for that. "I mean, it might be some sort of helmet, but I don't know why it'd have lines coming off of it-" She smacked him with the notepad, as if he were purposely guessing wrong. "If you turn it this way, it could be an elcor-" That earned him another smack, this time accompanied by an annoyed grunt and some muttering. "Okay, well I give up."

Shepard snatched a datapad off the floor and pulled up an image, showing it to him like he was an idiot for not seeing the obvious similarity.

"That was a _ship_?" he asked, incredulous. Shepard growled and threw the damn notepad at him, hand splayed out in a challenge for him to do any better. Subvocals rumbling in amusement, he angled the paper so she couldn't catch a peak until it was done. He was never much of an artist, either, but oh well. Finished, he passed it over without a word.

Her mouth immediately opened to comment, but she either remembered his translator was off or whatever she'd planned to say didn't pan out the way she'd hoped. Instead, she huffed out a long breath in annoyance before moving on to the next set of letters. Though she did spend a lot more time on her drawings, putting in a real effort to make them clear. Honestly, he preferred the messy scribbles but there was something cute about the way her tongue stuck out as she tried to get the lines just right.

Towards the last few words, Shepard started fidgeting a bit where she sat cross legged on his bed. Suspicion lurked in the back of his mind as he started on the last word, which was actually one of the shorter ones. The first letter wasn't one he'd had to use yet, so he double checked his notes before sounding it out slowly with probably more precision than the task required.

"Jane."

Her reaction was... strangely neutral. Like she was making a pointed effort to not let her face show anything. And that wasn't quite what he'd expected. He nervously tried again, his voice rumbling over the word. "Jane." It sounded... familiar, but slightly off. He tried again, this time using one of the variations for the vowels she'd told him. "Jane."

Wait...

"Jane?" He could see her eyes shining now that he'd finally recognized it. This time with confidence, he said, "Jane Shepard."

He switched his translator back on because Shepard's smile would blind him otherwise. And by blind, he meant of course that he'd fall even further for this human who was well beyond his reach. Only a few more months left in the year, then they'd be back with their families and most likely given new roommates when they came back for the next year's training. Really, he just needed to keep it together until then.

"How'd I do?"

"I mean, you're shit awful at pictionary, but the English was sounding good." Her voice was a little too thick, almost strained. Before he could speculate on what that could mean, the strangeness disappeared. "You gonna teach me some turian now?"

They obviously didn't have the equivalent game for turian letters, so they settled against the wall and used the paper. It was comfortable, sitting with their sides flush together and their hands occasionally brushing as they fought for the pen. Once Shepard was sure she'd mastered the basics of the letters (she hadn't, Garrus was sure of that, but never tell Jane Shepard she was wrong unless you were willing to deal with the consequences), they shut off her translator.

Shepard managed about as well as Garrus (thank the Spirits, if she'd done worse he was sure they'd be at it all night), but had trouble with the words for "galaxy" and "table." There were just some sounds human anatomy couldn't reproduce, even with the best coaching.

While he'd had his turn, Shepard had kept up a running commentary which he, of course, couldn't understand. Her voice, un-tempered by the translator, was difficult for him to read the tone of. He'd assumed it was all encouragement, although she undoubtedly added a few jokes about his pronunciation.

Garrus, lovesick fool that he was, did the same.

"You sound great, Shepard."

"You're doing such a good job."

But with the reality that _she couldn't understand him_ dawning upon him, it slowly progressed from there.

"You're beautiful, you know that? Even if you can't say the word 'table' to save your life."

"I'm pretty sure if you were turian, I'd have asked you out the first week. But if you were turian, you wouldn't be you so I think I like it better this way."

"I think I'm not really going to be able to get over you."

They both ended up turning off their translators and going back and forth, coming up with more ridiculous sounding words and not bothering with the meanings.

(He was certain she'd made up some of the words, like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and disestablishmentarianism, but she'd used her datapad to prove the validity of both. He'd of course countered with equally long and complicated turian words that had Shepard balking.)

They kept talking in between, too, and Garrus loved that he was getting a chance to better know the sound of her voice unfiltered by the translators. Tired and blissfully happy, the thought floated through his head that he'd learn English if they ever dated just so he could hear her that way all the time.

If pressed, he wouldn't be able to tell you who fell asleep first. Shepard's yawning started pretty early on, and eventually she'd leaned her head on his shoulder. But they'd gone for a while after that. Soon his eyes were drooping and he kept losing the thread of their conversation (or well... the two separate one-sided conversations that they were pretending were the same).

But the obvious proof that they _had_ fallen asleep on each other came with the morning sun filtering through the window. He'd stretched out only to find one of his arms weighed down and his legs tangled together. And there was something uncomfortable pressing into his back. As awareness came back to him piece by piece, he froze before gently extricating himself from Shepard's hold.

Somehow during the night, they'd ended up wrapped up around each other, blanket discarded on the floor and game pieces all over the place (including one of the letter holders that had wedged itself in his back, right under his ribs). He only managed to get his arm out from under Shepard before she shifted in her sleep, the hold her legs had on his own tightening in a deadlock.

Well, fuck.

Because this was... this was a window into something Garrus wasn't ever going to get. Waking up next to Shepard, her wrapped snugly around him (as if he were in any way comfortable for her soft, human form) and her scent embedding itself in his bedding. And that was half the problem - when she woke up and awkwardly left his bed, he'd be left with the lingering reminder of this night for at least a few days.

A few days with more fodder for this unrequited pining bullshit he apparently wasn't getting over any time soon.

He stayed like that for a few minutes, watching her and soaking in the moment, before deciding any longer would just be creepy (and an exercise in self-torture). So he extracted himself, this time not nearly as careful. In fact, he made a point of jostling the bed more and pulling his legs out a bit more roughly than needed, just to be sure the movement would wake her up.

It did.

"Hmmmmnnnghh." The noise brought forth the reminder that their translators must still be off, because usually her full body stretches were accompanied by the added resonance of subvocals (though they did nothing to make her sound any more dignified during her morning stretches). He waited until her sleepy gaze was on him before he very deliberately turned his back on. Rubbing sleep from her eyes, she grunted and did the same.

"Morning, Shepard."

"Mornin'." She yawned, showing off the dull teeth that always made Garrus wonder how exactly humans became apex predators on their planet. "Sleep well?"

She was teasing him, he knew, so he put in as much ribbing as he could when he quipped back, "As well as can be expected with a 60 kilo weight trying to strangle me."

Her dopey smile faded a bit into confusion, then quickly made reappearance (though some of the light had gone out of it). "Sorry, you were just the warmest thing around I guess." To prove her point, she reached over the edge of the bed and grabbed his blanket. Shaking off the scattered letter tiles, she got off the bed and started folding it. "We still on house arrest? I wanna run to the dining hall and eat, I'm starving."

Garrus checked his messages. "Looks like we're no longer restricted to our rooms but we can't leave the dorms until 07:00. We're doing breakfasts in shifts to keep the numbers down, and there aren't classes today."

"Sweet." Normally Shepard was all about her coursework, throwing herself into it because not only did she excel at it but thoroughly enjoyed it. He shot her a questioning look and she shrugged. "I was supposed to have an exam today and it's not like I studied last night." She poked around her stuff and found some clothes and her toiletry bag. "I'm gonna take a shower. If I'm not done in time, you can head own without me."

Huh. They pretty much _always_ went to breakfast together. Even if one of them was running late. He mentally cataloged their interactions from the previous night and this morning, trying to pinpoint what had changed to make Shepard seem to want to get away from him. Maybe that was it - they'd spent a solid 15 uninterrupted hours together and she'd had her Garrus quota for a while. Mildly depressing, but plausible.

As he changed into something that wasn't so wrinkled, he wondered if he should be mildly offended by Shepard's hasty departure. Guess there were some things that even the translators couldn't help him figure out...


End file.
